Birds of Saudi Arabia: More Yellow Wagtails

Whilst birding the Dhahran Hills football fields in the spring the number and type of Yellow Wagtails has been very high. The main numbers were Sykes Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava beema amongst them, which is an early migrant with March and April being the best months for seeing them. They are more often seen in spring than autumn. The other common Yellow Wagtail seen was Black-headed Wagtail feldegg which is part of the Yellow Wagtail complex a group of birds that are common spring and autumn passage migrants, sometimes in hundreds. Yellow Wagtails pass from mid-February to May and again from early August to mid-November with many races identifiable in the field including feldegg, melanogrisia, lutea, flava, thunbergi and bema. Sykes's Wagtail and Blue-headed Wagtail are sometimes difficult if not impossible to separate in the field.